Brace For Impact

by Janice Kay Johnson - His Best Friend's Baby

  Fifteen minutes along, her thigh muscles and ankles began to protest. The positive was that they were moving slowly. Will obviously intended to be ultra-careful.

  They had barely exchanged a word since they left Torrent Creek behind. Maddy knew they were passing right above the murderous pair still lying in wait, maybe as little as five hundred feet separating them. If one of them decided to scout around...

  She clenched her teeth to keep any gasps from escaping.

  They came to yet another creek carrying snowmelt from above. It wasn’t as wide or powerful as Torrent Creek, but Will left her to hunt for a safe way to cross. They ended up descending to a place where they could scramble over on mossy rocks. One of her feet got soaked, as did one of his. She dismissed the squishy feeling as a minor discomfort.

  Sometime in the next hour, Will began angling them downward. Instead of the miserable creek-bed jungle they’d previously beaten their way through, this was a magnificent forest. Maddy recognized big-leaf maples mixed into evergreens, including a few massive trunks of ancient trees. It was so green everywhere she looked. Moss grew everywhere, and lacy swags of pale green and gray draped from branches. Lichen, Will told her.

  They were so close. She’d looked at the map enough to know they would meet up with the Stetattle Creek trail anytime. And yes, Will had read that the upper half or more wasn’t maintained, but at least there’d been a trail there once upon a time. That had to be better than the completely untamed wilderness they’d been crossing, didn’t it?

  They ended up finding a remnant of the trail by accident. This time it was Will who lost his footing. Swearing, he skidded down a sharp drop-off and, from her perspective, thudded to a sudden stop.

  “Hot damn,” he said. “It’s flat here, Maddy. See if you can get down on your feet instead of your ass like I did.”

  There were purple berries on one of the shrubs. She reached out without thinking, made herself ask, “Will? There are berries here. Are they edible?”

  “Purple?”

  “Yes.”

  “Huckleberries. Good eating.”

  Maddy picked and stuffed several handfuls into her mouth before cautiously picking her way down to him, where she found him doing the same.

  “We’d probably better not have any more.” The hand that reached for her was stained purple. So was hers, for that matter. “Don’t know how much our stomachs can handle. Besides...”

  Besides, they were so close to escaping.

  Without a word, she set off behind him.

  * * *

  WITHIN MINUTES THE trail vanished, having clearly fallen victim to a washout. Will had to lead Maddy up a sharp climb before angling back down again. Another creek emerged from a sharp cut in the slope. This time he and Maddy simply scrambled through it, past caring about wet boots.

  He started paying attention to the sun. More hours had passed than he’d realized, which lessened their chances of meeting a party of hikers coming up from Diablo. Will really didn’t want anyone else to set eyes on Maddy.

  As they kept moving, he became increasingly wary, stopping her at regular intervals to listen and look, both ahead and behind. Anyone pursuing them would expect them to pop out in the tiny hamlet of Diablo. Given how major the operation was that had been set in motion to find her, Will expected that someone would be hanging out between here and the parking lot, waiting for them.

  Twice more they had to detour around stretches where the trail was missing, a tree had fallen or a rockfall presented an impassable obstacle. Eventually, the trail began a series of switchbacks taking the steep drop back to the creek. Maddy plodded along, looking at where she was placing her feet. She never lifted her head, even when a doe splashed through yet another tributary right in front of them.

  But damn, she was still walking. The strange swelling in his chest, Will finally identified as pride. She’d insisted she could do this, and she had.

  Almost.

  Just as he started to feel complacent, he heard a voice, followed by a younger, excited one. He turned his head. There.

  He grabbed Maddy’s arm and steered her up and over a giant fallen tree, rotting and moss-covered. Beyond was a lush cluster of ferns and the hated devil’s club. Will coaxed her into lying down but hadn’t gotten that far himself when a man and two boys appeared on the trail.

  Will smiled and nodded.

  “Whatcha doing?” the younger boy asked.

  “Having a snack,” he said, picking a few berries to demonstrate.

  “Oh. Dad, can we...?”

  “They’re thicker just a little ways up the trail,” Will put in. He held up his hand in illustration. “I just decided to grab a last few.”

  The man, balding and wearing running shoes, said, “Come on, boys.”

  “There’s a landslide and some washouts ahead,” Will warned. “You can get around them, but it’s a scramble.”

  With a thanks, the small group moved on. The minute they were out of sight, Will helped Maddy back to her feet, over the log and down the trail.

  Even over the gurgle of the creek, he heard the sound of a car engine.

  He kept her behind him along the last, short stretch until buildings came into sight. The whole way, his hand hovered over the butt of the Glock. He had to find a place to hide her while he went to get his Jeep.

  He spotted what appeared to be a garage. He could drive right up to it.

  He steered her around behind it. “Okay, honey, I want you to wait here for me. I’ll get the car and come back for you.”

  Comprehension was slow in coming, but finally she nodded.

  To cheer her up, he said, “There’s nowhere to eat in Diablo, not even a store, so it’s just as well we don’t want to hang around anyway. The first real town we come to that has a drive-through burger joint, we’re stopping.” He didn’t mention that it would be some miles. On the map, Newhalem looked like a town but was really just housing for National Park Service and Seattle City Light employees. He was pretty sure there was nothing like a restaurant there.

  Maddy’s lips were cracked. Damn it, had she been biting them? But those lips also curved. In a croaky voice, she said, “I want a root beer float.”

  Will grinned at her. “You can have anything your heart desires.”

  Her eyes more alert, she said, “I’m okay. Go.”

  Hating to leave her, Will did anyway, strolling as if he wasn’t in any hurry at all. A man sitting in an SUV seemed to be watching him...or happened to be idly gazing in his direction. Hard to be sure, but what could he be waiting for? Will nodded in a friendly way then let his own gaze wander.

  The hair on his neck prickled when he saw a beefy guy wearing camo cargo pants, a dark green T-shirt and boots striding across the narrow bridge that led into town. The guy looked him over but seemed to dismiss him when Will veered into the parking area and unlocked his Jeep.

  Will hated situations like this. He’d lost track of days, but he knew there were too many people around. With this having been the Fourth of July weekend, the campground and trail around the lake were undoubtedly still packed. Plenty of people would have taken a week off. This time of year, climbers and hikers came and went constantly. He hoped he didn’t stand out.

  If a watcher had noted the Jeep sitting here for over a week and then saw a man who wasn’t carrying a pack strolling out of the forest and hopping in, that might catch his attention. Especially when that man didn’t head over the bridge to the highway, but instead drove back to the trailhead.

  Couldn’t be helped—but he’d keep the Glock close at hand.

  * * *

  MADDY HEARD VOICES and car engines, but didn’t see anyone as she waited. Still, she felt exposed. She let herself lean on the clapboard wall, but not sit. She knew how hard it would be to get up again.

  The growling sound of an engine coming closer m
ade her feel like a rabbit that unexpectedly found itself in the open when a coyote prowled toward it. Please be Will, she thought.

  It was. He startled her by coming an unexpected way around the building.

  He said only, “Let’s get out of here,” and hustled her into the backseat. “Lie down. I’m going to throw some stuff on top of you.”

  She crawled in, and seconds later was buried by what she thought was a parka and a blue tarp. A thump was the descent of a boot right beside her head. She couldn’t tell where the other boot went.

  “Keep down until I tell you otherwise,” he said tersely.

  The door slammed. The driver-side door opened and closed, and they were moving. They stopped briefly—

  “Bridge is narrow,” he said, voice low. “I’m letting a camper cross.”

  Rattling as they passed across the bridge, then the smoother whir of tires on a highway.

  “Stay there for a few minutes,” Will said, his tone normal. “I want to be sure no one follows us.”

  A part of her wanted to sit up and see, but the motion of the vehicle and the hum of the engine also made her sleepy. She blinked awake when Will said sharply, “Maddy! Are you okay?”

  “I...” She worked her mouth. “Yes.”

  “I think you can sit up if you want.”

  “I’m kind of comfortable,” she admitted.

  He laughed. “Okay. Tell you the truth, I’m afraid we won’t find a drive-through until we get to Rockport, and that’s, I don’t know, fifteen, twenty miles.”

  “Okay,” she mumbled, and went back to sleep.

  She woke up again when they reached the town of Rockport, but at his suggestion stayed where she was while he went through the drive-through and asked for three cheeseburgers, three orders of French fries, a Coke and a root beer float. Only after he paid, collected the food and pulled out did she untangle herself from the debris on the backseat and sit up.

  She’d barely gotten a quick view of lake, trees, mountains, when Will snapped, “Get back down. Now.”

  Without hesitation, she followed his order, yanking stuff over her with her good hand. “What is it?” she whispered.

  “I recognize the SUV behind us.” He swore. “I didn’t see it when I pulled into the eatery, but if he was hanging back...” Pause. “I think I’ll eat and dawdle along, see if he won’t give up and pass us.”

  Her stomach growled and her mouth watered at the smell of burger and fries and the sounds of Will eating, but she lay still, her pulse racing. To get so far and then be caught. They couldn’t be so unlucky, could they?

  The minutes ticked by. Then, “Yep, there he goes,” Will said, but tension remained in his voice. “He took a good look at me as he went by.”

  “He can’t know it’s you.”

  “No, there’s no way they got much of a look at me the one time we know they saw us. I’m not wearing the same shirt, and I have plain brown hair. I just hope he’s satisfied that I’m alone.”

  “Can I sit on the floor back here and eat?” She sounded pitiful and didn’t care. “I’ll duck further down if you tell me to.”

  “Yeah.”

  Given the length of his legs, it wasn’t surprising that his seat was pushed back so far. Maddy squeezed herself onto the floor on the passenger seat.

  Will handed back a bag, then the tall cup with her float.

  The salty French fries she crammed into her mouth might taste better than anything she’d ever eaten.

  * * *

  WILL MANAGED TO down his double meal with no trouble even as he kept a sharp eye out during the remainder of the drive, especially when he reached the turn-off from Highway 20 in Concrete. He was renting a log cabin in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, just the way he’d wanted it. Now he didn’t love the fact that his cabin was at the end of the road, with no neighbors near enough to hear or see any visitors. Fortunately, he hadn’t yet changed the address for his driver’s license or car registration from the barracks at Fort Lewis, the army base by Tacoma. He’d be surprised if somebody hadn’t noted his license plate number, probably along with others. He couldn’t think of any way they’d track him by it, though. Even the army didn’t know where he was.

  Relaxing, he said, “You can get up if you want. We’re almost home.”

  His home, he reminded himself, not hers. A successful Seattle attorney wouldn’t want to live in the back of beyond, even if the commute was possible. Which it wasn’t. No, he was giving her temporary refuge, that was all. He couldn’t afford to get any ideas.

  He heard her struggling to get back up onto the seat. There was a silence as she looked around.

  “This doesn’t look any different than it did up there.” Her surprise was obvious.

  “No, my cabin is just outside the Mount Baker National Forest. I don’t know if this is technically rain forest, but it feels like it. The things draping from tree limbs are a form of lichen like Old Man’s Beard. Takes a really wet climate for them to survive. Looks like someone toilet-papered the trees and no one bothered to clean up, but they grow from the branches. Sort of a moocher, I guess.”

  “Like me,” she said, so softly he suspected he wasn’t meant to hear.

  The comment gave him a pang. Maddy was no user.

  “I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I’m looking forward to a shower. Wanna race?”

  Caught in the rearview mirror, her smile was weak but present.

  She’d stiffened up, accepting his help to climb out of the Jeep. Her head turned as she took in the open forest, the green light filtering through high fir, cedar and hemlock boughs, the peace. The only sound was the ripple of a small creek that the back deck looked down on.

  “It’s beautiful.” Her voice was hushed in keeping with the atmosphere.

  “I think so,” he agreed.

  He unlocked the front door and led Maddy in. The space was open, the only walls enclosing the bathroom. Steps almost steep enough to be a ladder led up to a loft, where he slept. A cast-iron stove sat in front of the river rock chimney. Hewn of fir, the kitchen cabinets fit with the glossy log walls and small-paned windows. Will was going to hate to leave this place when the time came.

  He nudged Maddy straight into the bathroom and sat her down on the closed toilet seat. There he helped her strip to bra and panties, trying desperately to look at her from the perspective of a medic, not a man who wanted her.

  It didn’t prove to be as difficult as he might have thought, not once he got a good look at how battered she was. She’d acquired plenty of new bruises, as he probably had, too. The lump on her collarbone had enlarged and felt hot to the touch. The gash he already knew was infected was violently red around the edges and filled with pus. The only good news he could find was that the bumps on her head were gone.

  His close inspection, he noticed, had brought pink color to her grimy cheeks. Pretending he didn’t realize she felt self-conscious, he said, “Okay, pain meds, then shower. If you need help washing your hair, give me a yell. While you’re in there, I’ll find you something clean to wear and a real, honest-to-goodness sling. I’ll call my doctor friend for an antibiotic prescription, too.” He sat back on his heels. “You up to this?”

  She might look like hell, but she managed a smile. “A shower? Are you kidding?”

  He laughed, shook out a couple of the strongest pain pills he had and gave them to her with a glass of water. Surreptitiously, he pocketed a couple of them himself. His hip and thigh throbbed.

  While she downed her pills, he set out a pile of clean towels and shook out the bath mat before turning on the water and waiting until it reached a reasonable temperature.

  Once he left her alone in the bathroom, Will groaned. He couldn’t afford to picture her naked with water sluicing over creamy skin and feminine curves. It helped to remind himself the water was also sliding over
a lot of black-and-blue skin, not to mention the virulently infected slice on her hip.

  He rubbed his hand over hair made stiff by the bar soap and sweat, and leaned against the kitchen counter while he scrolled to his buddy’s number.

  “Javier? Will Gannon.”

  “Will? Damn, it’s good to hear from you! How are you?”

  He downplayed his physical and emotional issues for his former teammate and, as soon as he could, said, “I have a situation. I’m hoping you’ll help me out.”

  As he’d expected, despite jeopardizing his medical license, Javier Sanchez promptly agreed to submit a prescription for a powerful antibiotic in Will’s name to a pharmacy in Sedro-Woolley. Will had opted against the one here in Concrete. Better not to be seen so close to home right now.

  * * *

  MADDY WAS CAREFUL not to give away how much she dreaded being left alone. She understood Will’s reasoning; in a small pharmacy like the one in town, he’d be recognized. People might wonder why he needed the antibiotics. Better for him to go somewhere only the pharmacist would see his name, and he’d be forgotten the minute he walked away. He’d decided to do a major grocery shop while he was out, too, and he’d pick up some basic clothes for her, as well, even if he had to drive into Burlington, the next town down the highway.

  She helped make a list of her sizes and preferences. Somehow she wasn’t surprised to learn he wasn’t much of a salad eater, but he promised to pick up a long list of fruits and veggies.

  Finally, he looked at her, creases deepening between his eyebrows. “We need to get in touch with your contact at the marshal’s service. I’ll pick up a burner phone while I’m shopping because I don’t want to use my own. Might be better if I make the call from a location away from the cabin, too. Let’s hope he isn’t off taking a two-week vacation.”

  The struggle to survive had required all her inner resources in recent days. His reminder brought it all back in a rush, from the shooting to all the consequences that followed.